In Whom We Trust
by JuniperGentle
Summary: The night that the Star arrived changed their lives forever. But with threats on every side and a learning curve so steep it was almost vertical, can the newly-dubbed Legends learn to control their superpowers long enough to stand on their own two feet against the greatest evil the world has ever faced? Superhero AU!
1. A Fairly Peaceful Night

_Welcome to my first proper AU – superhero style! _

_This is one of those plot-monster stories that grew wildly out of my control when I allowed it a second to breathe instead of binding it in inch-thick chains and keeping it locked in the worst dungeon of my mind. I do like making things hard for myself, don't I?_

_(For those waiting for an update for The Dragon Reborn, it's coming, but slowly, as I did something remarkably stupid in the last chapter that I'm having to fix in the new chapter)_

* * *

**Chapter 1 – A Fairly Peaceful Night**

_In which we meet our heroes_

Until that moment, it had been a fairly peaceful night.

That's not to say that it had been a _quiet_ night – Metal City never truly slept, and there were always things going on somewhere, of varying legitimacies. But this was something else entirely.

"SIMBA! That's way too much!" Arrow shrieked as the colossal tornado tore down the street, picking up two cars and flinging them high into the air. "Slow it down!"

"I told you not to call me Simba!" Lion bellowed back, but he did reduce the size of the tornado so that the cars were no longer in danger. High above, Pegasus swept in and grabbed one of them, bringing it safely down to earth with the help of Sentry. A long slide of square, blue-glowing shields formed beneath the other car, guiding it gently back to the street.

"Nice work, Quicksilver!" Pegasus called, swooping back along the street, feet barely skimming over the roofs of the cars. "Lion, block that guy!"

The tornado rippled and split, one half leaping to either end of the road. Their quarry hesitated, caught between walls of wind that began to close in on him.

"Take him down, Arrow!" Quicksilver shouted. "Hurry!"

Arrow was about to do exactly that when the winds picked up again and Lion snarled in irritation. "Hurry!" he snapped. "The wind's getting stronger – I either have to let this blow up to full strength or lose it completely!"

"I can't aim!" Arrow shouted back. "I can't see him. Sentry, can you get a lock on him?"

_No. My apologies. _The voice sounded in his head and not his ears, courtesy of the group's telekinetic telepath. _The wind is too loud._

"Hey, Arrow, I've found you a vantage point. Hold on!"

Arrow barely managed to stop his next arrow from falling to the ground as Pegasus suddenly grabbed him by the hook on the back of his flight harness and dragged him into the air before dumping him on the edge of the balcony of a seventh-floor flat. He staggered as he landed, but kept his feet, automatically turning to where the man they had been trying to capture since he broke into a bank three streets away half an hour ago was standing, petrified. "Thanks, Pegasus!"

From here, aiming was easy, and he didn't have to calculate the drop of the arrow so much. Even as the prospective bank robber reached for where Arrow assumed his gun was held, the shot hit him square in the chest.

The arrow was cushioned and blunted, enough to knock the man down and probably break several of his ribs, but that was what Quicksilver's healing power was for. It certainly had the desired effect, as the man keeled over backwards and lay still.

With a sigh of relief, Lion released the tornadoes, sending them safely back into the normal air currents. Quicksilver scrambled around the end of a large van and ran to where the downed man was, hands already glowing faintly blue. Pegasus darted downwards, unspooling a piece of thin, sturdy rope from his belt.

_The police are less than four streets away._ Sentry's voice was cool and calm as always as it echoed inside their heads. _We should prepare to leave._

"Just a second," Quicksilver murmured. "There! All fixed."

"He'll be fine there," Pegasus said happily as he finished tying the last knot in their captive's bonds. "Let's go home, everyone."

By the time that the police cars rounded the corner, all that was left of the last half-hour's work was a bound and gagged criminal – and a car with a dented roof and an apologetic note on its windscreen.


	2. How Legends Are Born

**Chapter 2 – How Legends Are Born**

_In which we are properly introduced_

"I could have taken that guy down on my own," Kyouya grumbled as they made their way into the debriefing room.

"Yes, and that road would look like a combat zone hit by a hurricane," Dynamis told him sternly. "We fight as a team so that we cover each other's weaknesses. Your particular weakness is control."

Kyouya didn't bother replying – they had had this argument many times before – and dropped into his favourite chair with a sigh. "I still don't like it."

"We know," Kenta muttered, rubbing at his right shoulder. He was still getting used to the flight harness, and whilst Gingka was an excellent flier, it still put extra strain on his body when he least expected it. "Can we just get this over with? I'm tired and we've got school tomorrow."

Just then, the doors slid open and Ryo Hagane – better known to the world as Phoenix – walked in, trailed as always by Hikaru. "That was an excellent job," he said. "Well done, all of you. Kyouya, your control was excellent once you'd turned the power down, and Gingka, that was a good catch."

Gingka grinned. "Dynamis helped!"

"But it's Yuki I'm most impressed with," Ryo continued, smiling. "That trick with the shields as a slide to save that car was _brilliant_."

"It was nothing," Yuki muttered, ducking his head. "I just didn't want us getting in even more trouble with the city than we already are."

"Well, it was exactly the right thing to do," Ryo told him. "If you can improve your control of the shields, I think you could even learn to weaponise them."

Yuki immediately blanched. "Oh, no, Mr Ryo, sir, it's fine, I don't need to have a weapon, I'm quite happy being the healer and the shield guy…"

"Nevertheless, you don't know when you might end up having to fight on your own," Ryo said. "Keep that in mind, all of you. Now, I have some news. Remember that energy trace we picked up last night? Eagle should be calling in from where we pick it up within the next ten minutes to tell us whether we have a new Legendary or not."

"A new one?" Kenta asked, sitting up. "Seriously? I thought the Star only broke into four pieces."

Ryo shook his head. "No," he said. "We managed to get some amateur footage from Youtube – it split originally into four, and then as everyone looked away from their telescopes in surprise, each of those split again into two pieces, leaving eight. Two of them then broke again, leaving us with ten, all of which have chosen people around the globe. We confirmed the awakening of one all the way over in Europe about a week ago, but it hasn't been until now that we were able to get a lock on his position. Turns out he's actually _here_, only a few miles away for some reason. Eagle is trying to contact him to find out why."

The five youngsters all looked at each other. It had been nearly seven weeks since Yuki, or Quicksilver as he was known in the field, had joined them,and they'd only just settled into a proper team. The night's work had been their first completely error-free run. Now they were getting someone else?

"Do you know what his power is?" Gingka asked his father.

"We're unsure," Ryo said. "We think it might be related to either fire or electricity, judging by the level of destruction that he caused when Julian was first alerted to his existance."

Dynamis stretched his long legs out in front of him. "Well, it would add some more aggressive powers to the team if we had a ballistics expert," he said. "The four of us have passive powers."

Kenta shifted uncomfortably. Dynamis had a habit of doing exactly that; forcing him to remember that yes, there might be ten Star Fragments that had chosen people around the world to become superpowered, but he, Kenta Yumiya, youngest member of the super-powered team that had been protecting the streets of Metal City ever since their powers manifested, had not been one of them. The only reason why he was in the party at all was because otherwise they had no offensive force whatsoever – Kyouya's weather control, the only other option, was often a lot more _weather_ than it was _control_ – and Kenta was the best young archer in Japan.

But he didn't have any superpowers. Not like the other four – well, five, if you counted Ryo, who had been with Gingka when the Star struck but had only received fragmentary powers that regularly failed, making him useless in the field. No, Kenta was just ordinary.

"I wonder what he'll be like," Yuki chimed in.

"Or if it'll be a "he" at all," Kyouya pointed out. "It's not impossible for it to be a girl."

Gingka nodded and opened his mouth to say something, only for a blue light to flicker into life on the communications board. "Hey, Tsubasa's calling!"

When the video feed came up, it was a wan-looking Tsubasa who smiled back at them. "Hello, everyone. I trust everything went well tonight?"

"Nothing to report, Eagle," Ryo assured him. "How about you? Have you found anyone?"

Tsubasa's smile grew enough that he finally looked something other than exhausted. "Yes. He's a combined fire/lightning controller, though fire control is far more accurate than lightning. He says his name is King, though I can't work out if that's his true name or his code name."

Ryo looked very pleased. "Excellent work, Eagle. Have you asked him about joining the team?"

"Yes," Tsubasa said. "And he has agreed to come back with me to meet you all and decide then if he wants to join." A faintly amused expression crept across his face. "He asked if we had a team name, and seemed very disappointed when I told him that we didn't."

Ryo let out a short bark of laughter. "We haven't managed to find all of the people the Star Fragment chose yet – I think a team name can wait. Is he there?"

"Just a second."

Gingka looked across at Kyouya. "There you go," he said. "Someone with fire! Now you can make fire-devil tornadoes with him."

Kyouya scowled. "What if I don't want to?"

"Be nice," Dynamis snapped, just as a second person appeared on the screen beside Tsubasa. He had short, dark-blue hair and piercing blue eyes.

"Hi!" he said. "My name's King!"

Gingka waved. "Hi, King. I'm Gi- I'm Pegasus." He changed the word at the last second as his father glared at him. Even private communications from the headquarters weren't one hundred percent safe from hackers, and if anyone discovered their true identities...

"I'm Arrow," Kenta volunteered.

"Quicksilver," said Yuki.

"Sentry," Dynamis added, before frowning. "And the green-haired one who won't say anything is Lion."

"So the tall man must be Phoenix." King's eyes lit up. "Wow, it really is you guys! I thought this Eagle guy here was tricking me when he said he worked for the Legends."

Ryo blinked as the feed showed Tsubasa rolling his eyes in exasperation, apparently already well acquainted with this phrase. "The – who?" he asked.

King grinned. "The Legends! That's what we call you guys where I'm from, because your powers are awesome!"

"If that becomes our team name, I _will_ quit," Kyouya muttered just loud enough to be heard.

"So you're interested in helping us?" Yuki asked quickly. "We could really do with your help. Our powers are mostly passive at the moment; shielding, healing, telepathy, flight, and so on. Kenta's our offensive powerhouse at the moment, and he's just a very good archer, no powers or anything."

King's smile got even wider, if that was possible. "I'd love to! I'm actually going to be on a real superhero team! This is so exciting!"

"We'll send a helicopter to pick you up, then," Ryo offered. "Eagle, we've got your co-ordinates. It'll be there in half an hour."

"Got it," Tsubasa confirmed. "I'll see you all soon, then."

And with that he closed the connection.

.

Kenta wandered down the stairs to the basement a little while later to find Gingka and Kyouya sparring hand-to-hand, without powers. Surprisingly, they were evenly matched, as Kyouya could hit harder but Gingka was faster even without the assistance of Pegasus' twin powers of flight and super-speed.

"The helicopter's heading back," Kenta announced, but wasn't at all surprised when neither of them paid the slightest bit of attention. They never did when sparring. Honestly, Kenta thought, the world could have ended around them and they'd have just ignored it. "The entire building is on fire. Dynamis has been arrested for treason against the Queen of England. Tsubasa has turned into a mouse. I'm a girl and my first name is actually Annabelle. You've both missed dinner..."

Still no reaction.

"OI! GUYS!"

Finally, it worked. Both of the fighters looked up in surprise, Gingka's red hair flopping in front of his eyes as he turned. "Oh, hey Kenta. Didn't hear you come in."

Kenta rolled his eyes. "I've been here for ages. The helicopter's heading back, your dad wants us on the roof to meet it."

Kyouya snorted, but didn't say anything as he stalked past Kenta to the stairs that would take him straight to the roof. Gingka hesitated only for as long as it took him to readjust his headband before following, but even so, by the time that Kenta caught up with the red-haired young man Kyouya was out of sight.

"So how's your training going?" Gingka asked as the two of them started to climb the long staircase. "I've been meaning to ask you for ages, but I keep being pulled away by other stuff."

"Oh, it's fine," Kenta reassured him. "I'm just keeping up my current fitness level; not trying to improve anything at the moment. I've got to the point where if I try to improve one thing, I'll go downhill in all the other areas. So if I try improving accuracy, I'll just end up losing speed and endurance. It's best to stay as I am now, so that I can be the most help."

"What do you think the new guy will be like?" Gingka asked, changing the subject rather abruptly. He was running one hand through his hair, a sure sign of distraction. Kenta shrugged.

"I dunno. He looked kind of excitable when we saw him with Tsubasa, but who knows what he's like in real life?"

"Yeah," Gingka agreed. "But it'll be fun to have someone else to spar with. Kyouya's always really serious about it which is no fun at all, Dynamis reads what I'm about to do and dodges everything and Yuki just throws up a shield and hides. Not much good for training."

"I see," Kenta mused. "I... Couldn't I spar with you sometimes? I mean, I know I don't have powers or anything, but if you didn't use your speed or flight, it might work."

Gingka appeared to be considering it. "Perhaps," he said at last as they turned yet another corner onto the next flight of stairs. "But I thought you said you just wanted to maintain your level, not train any higher."

"Your dad's always saying that everyone needs hand-to-hand training," Kenta pointed out. "Just because I work from range doesn't mean everyone's going to stay away from _me._ Chances are, one day someone's going to sneak up on me and then I'm going to need all the training I can get."

Gingka nodded. "Okay," he said. "I'll ask Dad about it, see if we can work it into your schedule somewhere."

"You mean in between school, my other training, homework and going out every night to fight crime?"

That got a laugh out of the red-head. "You were the one who suggested it!"

Kenta grinned back at him happily. "Who needs sleep?" It was the unofficial motto of the group. "Hey, stop, this is the door to the helipad."

They were not at the very top of the building, but high enough that stepping out onto the edge of the helipad afforded them a fantastic view over almost the whole city. About a mile away, the lights of a large grey helicopter were making their way through the night sky. Kyouya and Dynamis were already there, and just as Gingka and Kenta reached them, Ryo, Yuki and Hikaru arrived.

"So the new guy's called King?" Yuki asked, apparently just to get conversation started. "That's got to be his code name. _No-one's_ called King – and if they were, no-one would be stupid enough to make it their code name as well."

"Who knows?" Gingka shrugged. "Doesn't really matter now, does it? He's coming here and that's all that's important."

"I hadn't realised how late it was getting," Ryo said as he looked up towards the approaching helicopter. "Straight to bed after meeting him, okay? I know you're all excited, but it's Tuesday and you've got school tomorrow."

Kyouya rolled his eyes, though whether it was at the school comment or the idea that he might be excited about meeting someone new, no-one but Dynamis could have guessed. Hikaru glared at him.

"You need education," she snapped, but the rest of the sentence was drowned out by the sound of the rotor blades as the helicopter came in to land.

Tsubasa was the first to jump out, almost the moment that the helicopter touched down on the roof. In the fierce wind caused by the still-spinning rotors, his hair whipped around his head like silver flames. Behind him, the blue-haired young man was hesitating in the doorway, apparently not as comfortable around helicopters as Tsubasa was. Gingka beamed at him and waved. The young man looked startled, then grinned in reply and waved back.

"Hi!" he called, voice just now audible over the slowing rotors as he jumped down to the ground. He seemed to be about Gingka's age and height, and friendly enough, though the group knew well enough that appearances could be deceptive.

"Dynamis." Ryo's voice was quiet, only meant for the lilac-haired boy he stood beside.

"Yes, sir." As tall as he was, Dynamis was already impressive enough as he stepped forwards, but the faintest updraught left from the helicopter's rotors tugged and pulled at the long white robes he wore as Sentry, swirling around him and giving him an unmistakable air of control and command. About five paces from the blue-haired boy, he halted and for a moment the only sound on the rooftop was the dying wind. Then:

"He is who he says he is," Dynamis said. "And..." He hesitated, before giving a soft half-laugh. "And King is his real name."

"Huh?" King looked startled. "How'd you know – oh! Of course! You're Sentry!"

Dynamis inclined his head. _Welcome,_ he said telepathically, voice echoing in everyone's minds. _I am Sentry._

"But I didn't feel anything!" King exclaimed. "You read my mind, but I didn't feel anything! I thought it'd be like someone was poking my brain."

Dynamis looked mildly scandalised. _I would be a poor telepath indeed if I let others notice when I was reading them. It would rather take the element of surprise away, would it not?_

King seemed to ponder this. "I guess so," he said at last. "But how do I know that you're _not_ doing it all the time?"

"You can't," Kyouya said, something slightly nasty creeping into his voice. "All you can do is trust that his hands are as clean as he makes them out to be. You'll never find out." Dynamis' shoulders tensed, but he did nothing to either deny or acknowledge Kyouya's accusation.

"That's enough, boys," Ryo interrupted firmly. "It's nearly two in the morning, you need to be getting to bed. King, there's just a few things I need to ask you before we can get you sorted with a bunk in one of these guys' rooms, if you'd come with me?"

"What happened to getting to meet him?" Gingka protested.

"You mean I climbed all those stairs for _nothing_?" Kyouya exclaimed.

"Alright, alright." Ryo had clearly realised that he had forgotten his promise. "Fine, we'll all go to the debriefing room. You can do the introductions there and then _straight_ to bed, alright?"

King looked very confused. "But I already know your names - he's Lion, he's Pegasus, he's Arrow, that's Sentry, and so that must be Quicksilver. And the guy I came with is Eagle."

Gingka laughed. "Our _real_ names," he said. "Dynamis – that's Sentry – said that you're genuine, so you can know our proper names now."

"Oh," King said in a very small voice. "I thought your name really was Pegasus."

Kyouya covered his face with one hand. Dynamis was apparently trying to hide a smirk. Gingka and Yuki just stared in blank astonishment, so it was up to Kenta to step forwards. "Er, no," he said slightly sheepishly. "We've all got code names and real names. It stops the media, and also stops the police from finding out who we really are. They don't seem to mind that we're helping fight crime, but if they found out that we're all still school-age?"

"I see." For the first time since he arrived, King seemed to be genuinely serious. "So... so what are your real names?"

"Inside first," Ryo said.

"Cool name!"

"N – wait, what? No! That's not my name. Oh – never you mind. It's safer inside, come on." Ryo led the way over to the roof doors, ignoring the hastily muffled laughter of his son.

.

Safely in the debriefing room, Ryo turned to face the group.

"King, now that we're away from any potential eavesdroppers, let me introduce Gingka, Yuki, Dynamis, Kyouya, Kenta, Hikaru and Tsubasa. I'm Ryo, Gingka's father, but you can call me the Immortal Phoenix!"

"_DAD!_" Gingka turned the same colour as his hair. Honestly.

But King just smiled widely. "Hi! I'm King! Though... you already knew that."

"You're going to need a code name," Kenta pointed out. "You get to pick. I mean, mine's based on what I do, but Kyouya called himself Lion and no-one knows how that relates to tornado-control."

King appeared to ponder this solemnly. Then the grin came back, as brilliant as ever. "I'll be King, then!"

There was a long moment of silence. Finally, Tsubasa spoke up. "King, your code name needs to be different from your real name. That's the _point_ of code names."

"Yeah, so no-one will ever guess that I'm really King, because I'm called King!"

_I'm not even going to try to follow his logic,_ Dynamis sighed, then rubbed his head. _Besides, his mind is __**loud**_**.**

Yuki perched himself on the edge of a chair. "I think I get what he means," he said slowly. "If his real name is King, then calling himself King in the field would work because _no-one's_ called King in real life. It's like reverse psychology."

"Yeah! Reverse... whatsit."

Hikaru rolled her eyes. "No matter. You'll need to be registered with your proper name so that we can get you into school as soon as possible. I'll sort out the details as soon as possible."

King stared at her. "Wait, I still have to go to school?"

_Of course you do_, said Dynamis from the far side of the debriefing room. _All of us go to school. Otherwise we'd attract attention, as Gingka, Yuki, Kenta and Kyouya were already in schools in the area when they were struck by the Star. It is safer for us to assume civilian identities during the day. _

"Wouldn't it be easier to take everyone out of school and then we could be superheroes all night instead of only half of it?"

Ryo laughed. "No, actually. We don't know much about these powers, and whilst at the moment they seem to just be useful for fighting crime, there's not much of a career in that. Eventually, you will all grow up into young men and then you will need to support yourselves somehow. That's why we're keeping everyone in education. Besides, it's good for you to have friends outside this group."

"Don't worry," Gingka smiled, seeing a momentary hesitation in King's expression. "You'll make friends really quickly, I promise. And we'll all be in the same school so we can all hang out together anyway."

"Just remember," Kenta began, only for everyone in the room to join in with varying degrees of boredom and sternness "_Never reveal your powers or your identity to anyone, no matter what._"

"Powers no-go outside," King summarised. "Got it." Then he tilted his head to one side, grinning. "Hey, shall I show you what I can do?" And a spark of fire appeared in the palm of his hand, rapidly growing to an orange-sized ball.

"Whoa!" Yuki and Kenta yelped, jumping backwards, Yuki instinctively throwing up a shield that lit his face with blue light.

"Not in here!" Tsubasa exclaimed at the same moment, and King blinked before closing his fingers over the fireball, snuffing it out.

"But I thought you'd want to see what I can do," he said, almost sadly.

"We'll test the limits of your power tomorrow," Ryo said firmly. "For now, you should go and get settled into your room. Let's think, where shall we put you... Tsubasa, if you move your stuff in with Dynamis and Kyouya, then King could share with Gingka instead. Would that work?"

Tsubasa shrugged. "No problem. Gingka's closer to his age anyway, and Dynamis and Kyouya have the biggest room so it only makes sense that we put three people in there."

"It's only temporary," Ryo promised. "If that footage was right, there's going to be at least another five or six people joining us. Looks like we're going to have to expand into some of the other floors, and then you can have your own rooms." He looked around at the small, tired group. "For now, though, you'll share with Gingka. Go on. Gingka will show you the way. The rest of you – _bed. Now._"

Kyouya looked for a second like he was going to argue, but a yawn broke his scowl and Ryo gave him a particularly fierce look. "Fine," Kyouya growled, stomping out of the room. Tsubasa shook his head and followed the temperamental weather-controller.

"This way," Gingka said, indicating to King which direction to take out of the door. "We're at the end of the second corridor. Closer to the stairs, but further from the debriefing room. I'll show you around tomorrow, after school."

"This place is so big," King commented, running one hand along the wall. "Are all the other rooms full of super high tech stuff?"

Kenta, walking just behind them, laughed. "We wish," he said. "This tower was pretty run down when Gingka's dad got it. We haven't completely fixed all the floors yet – just this one, the top floor by the helipad and the level below with the kitchen. Hence the room sharing. We just don't have enough usable space right now. Oh, and don't run your hand along the wall – we only painted them on Saturday."

King hurriedly pulled his hand away from the wall, inspecting it for any signs of white paint. "Warn me next time!"

"I did!"

"Warn me earlier, then!"

Gingka couldn't help but smile as he led the way down the corridor to his room. He had the funny feeling that King was going to fit right in.


	3. Learning

_For those of you who know where I live – negative sides of NATO security: 1) transport chaos at rush hour, 2) fencing is ugly, 3) helicopters overhead all the time. _

_Plus sides of NATO security: 1) I will never again be this safe in my life, 2) this is the only occasion I will ever get to play my new favourite game, Police Force Bingo (if you're confused or want to know more, PM me), 3) GIGANTIC warships in a tiny little dock is always fun to watch, 4) HELICOPTERS overhead all the time *happily spotting her twelfth different one today* _

_Sorry for being late, and some advance warning: next chapter will not be here until next Sunday (14__th__) because now I have a job I have less time to write, and this weekend I'm off to visit my family so, again, less writing time._

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Learning**

_(In which we get some new friends, and some homework)_

"YUKI! KENTA! UP!"

The booming double thump of two bodies falling out of their respective beds and hitting the floor echoed through the building, and down in the kitchen King winced.

"I still can't believe she doesn't have superpowers," he said to Tsubasa, who was standing by the kettle. "I'm sure humans aren't meant to shout that loudly."

Tsubasa laughed. "And that is why I have two alarm clocks. Not even Kyouya will face Hikaru if he's late for breakfast." His mouth twisted in a wry grin. "I'd really rather not know how loud she could be _with_ powers."

King shuddered theatrically. "Me neither," he said, just as Dynamis walked into the room and sat down, immediately helping himself to toast.

"Good morning," he said and Tsubasa ducked as the cupboard door flew open and the jam pot jumped across the room.

King stared. "Hey!" he said. "That was out loud!"

"I _am_ capable of talking, King." Dyamis sighed.

"Yeah, I know, but you don't tend to."

It was Dynamis' turn to smile. "That's only when I'm here. How do you think I manage at school if the teacher asks me a question? I can't use my powers there. That reminds me; it's your first day today, isn't it?"

King grinned at him. "Yeah! I... wait, why am I excited about school?"

"Because you're fed up of being stuck in this tower with only Dad for company?" Gingka asked, joining the group from the direction of the bathroom; his red hair was still plastered to his head from a shower. "You actually get to come with us for once."

"Who's coming with us?" That was Kenta, looking sleepy and more than a little ruffled. "Oh, King's first day?" He yawned. "Cool."

"Hikaru scare you, Kenta?" Tsubasa asked, trying and failing not to grin.

"It wasn't my fault! Yuki's alarm clock ran out."

"It doesn't even have legs..."

"Shut up, Gingka."

It was Monday morning. All of them had been out late the previous night – a spate of car burglaries in the area had caught Ryo's attention and by midnight the ringleaders were trussed up in front of the police station. Some of them were slightly singed, as King's control of his powers was... limited, to put it nicely. Only Kyouya's thankfully-controlled tornado had been able to divert the massive flames that the blue-haired boy produced away from the petrol-filled cars and avert a disaster.

But that was yesterday, and that was superhero time. Now it was time to be a normal teenager again.

"Am I going to be in classes with you guys?" King asked around a mouthful of oats. Gingka shrugged.

"With luck, you should be. There's a few different classes in each year, and we're not all in the same one. You can meet us for lunch and stuff, though."

"Gingka and I are in your year," Yuki told him, walking in. "Tsubasa, Hikaru, Dynamis and Kyouya are the year above, Kenta's the year below. Oh, I just remembered – what's our cover story for King?"

The others looked around at each other. "I've forgotten," Kenta admitted. "Let's see... I'm Gingka's adopted brother, Yuki's staying with us whilst his parents are away on long-term overseas business, Dynamis is our – what were you, Dynamis?"

"I'm a student from out of town, staying with you because Gingka's father was kind enough to take me in so that I could attend your school for its excellent languages program."

"Kyouya and I are adopted too," Tsubasa added. "And Hikaru is Gingka's older cousin, here because of fights with her parents. We can't really use the adopted route again." He frowned. "Looks like we're running out of ideas."

Dynamis had closed his eyes. "King is an exchange student," he said. "Like me, he's here for a while to get into... into the university's business program." He opened his eyes. "That's the story Ryo has."

Just at that moment, Ryo himself stuck his head around the door. "You boys almost ready?" he asked. "We're leaving in ten minutes."

"Wahh!" Yuki exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air in a panic. "I haven't had breakfast yet!"

King burst out laughing along with the others, then ducked as Dynamis casually threw the marmalade pot to Yuki.

.

The school wasn't _huge,_ exactly, but it still had more people in it than King had seen in a while.

"Um, how do I not get lost?" he asked, hanging back by a step as the small group entered the main hallway. He could handle people, but big places with lots of corners and corridors weren't really his thing.

"Stick with us," Tsubasa suggested.

He looked like he was about to add something else when a shout of "TSUBASA!" echoed down the hallway and something small and golden barrelled out of nowhere straight into Tsubasa's legs. "Tsubasa you're late I thought you said you were never late I won't have time to tell you everything that happened it was really awesome I'm - "

"Hello, Yuu," said Tsubasa with a tone that held no trace of exasperation, despite the fact that by the faces of the others this was a regular and noisy occurrence. "I take it your weekend was good."

None of them got to hear much of the rest of the conversation as Yuu dragged Tsubasa off. "Bye, guys," Tsubasa called as he vanished into the crowd. "See you at lunch!"

King blinked. "Is he... normally like that?" he asked. "And how does he know Tsubasa?"

"That was Yuu Tendo," Gingka explained. "He's Kenta's age, but he's a _genius._ He was advanced two whole years, which is how he met Tsubasa, but apparently he doesn't know the meaning of 'work' so he's actually in our class. Well, mine. He's a fun guy, just really loud when he's excited." He laughed suddenly. "And no, not everyone here is like that. Come on, I'll take you to the office, then we can get your timetable."

.

King had expected the first day to drag on horribly, as he struggled to find places and people whose names slipped from his grasp like the water he instinctively hated. But much to his surprise, it seemed that he had barely blinked when it was lunch time and he found himself standing in the main hallway looking around for anyone he recognised.

"Hey," said a voice from behind him, and King spun around to see the boy he'd been sitting next to in Maths behind him.

"Hey! I know you!"

The boy grinned. "Have you got lunch? I'm gonna go eat on the grass if you wanna come with me?"

King hesitated. "Um... I think I was going to eat with the people I live with..." he began, but the other boy just laughed.

"You came with Gingka, right? I'm a friend of his; we used to hang out together loads. He's got really busy recently, but we're still friends."

"Oh!" Now King felt a bit foolish. "Sure, then, thanks! Er... I didn't catch your name?"

The other boy pointed, indicating that King should head towards the door at the end of the corridor. "This way. Oh, I'm Masamune, by the way. What was your name again?"

"I'm King!"

There was a long silence, or at least silence between the two of them as the usual bustle of school lunchtime continued around them. "No way," Masamune said. "No way. King's not a real name."

"It is!"

"Is not."

"Is!"

"Is not."

"Hi, King! Hey, Masamune!"

Thank goodness for Gingka's perfect sense of timing. "Gingka, tell him my name really is King!"

Gingka looked between the two boys, looking slightly alarmed. "Um... yeah, his name actually is King, Masamune. Er, he's European. That's why."

King rolled his eyes, but luckily Masamune didn't seem to notice. What kind of lame excuse was that?

"We were going to sit by the trees," Dynamis broke in, appearing out of nowhere. Even three days ago, this would have made King jump six feet in the air, but he was rather more used to the soundless way Dynamis moved now. "Were you coming?"

"Lead the way!" Ginkga declared loftily, only for both Masamune and King to crack up laughing at him. "Shut up!"

The trees were a little way from the main area that everyone seemed to be eating in, so it took a while to reach them, which was quite long enough for King to decide that Masamune was probably completely insane, but was also pretty awesome. He also seemed to be in a lot of King's classes, which was always useful.

It seemed that his claim of being one of Gingka's group of friends was correct as well, as almost the moment that the little group reached the trees, Tsubasa, Kenta and Yuu appeared from the left, carrying their own food. Well, Tsubasa ad Kenta were carrying food. Yuu was carrying ice-cream. None of them reacted very much to Masamune's presence, so clearly this really was an everyday occurrence. King wondered to himself whether Masamune had any idea that he was sitting with three powerful, young superheroes and two of their supporters.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, someone with short, brown hair moved past him and sat down next to Gingka with a thump, resolving itself into a teenaged girl.

"Hey, Madoka!" Gingka exclaimed, looking up. "King, this is my friend Madoka; Madoka, this is King, my... er... well, he's living with us." He grimaced. "It's complicated, sorry."

The brown-haired someone - Madoka - smiled at King. "Nice to meet you properly," she said, pulling a box out of her bag. "You were in my History class this morning."

King blinked. "Um, I was?"

She laughed. "Sure. You sat two rows in front of me, and got almost all the questions right in the quiz."

"Seriously?" Gingka asked, looking shocked. "No-one gets those quizzes right! Maybe you should go into History instead of Business."

"Oh, you're here to study business?" Madoka said, her eyes lighting up. "I want to study business too, so that I can take over my dad's shop when I'm older." At King's slightly puzzled expression, she explained "My dad owns a corner shop next to our house. It's been in my family for three generations and I've been helping out there since I was tiny. You should come by some time!"

"What classes have you got this afternoon?" Gingka interrupted, earning him a glare from Madoka. As it happened, King had not been in either Gingka or Yuki's main classes. Luckily, though, he would be with at least one of them at least once every day in other, mixed classes, so it wasn't as if he was going to be lonely. With the addition of Masamune and Madoka, he finally felt like he was getting the hang of this school thing.

_Don't._

King froze. That voice had definitely been Dynamis' – or, more exactly, Sentry's. _I thought you said no powers in school!_ he thought furiously.

_You were sparking in the presence of three civilians. I had no choice. _

King looked down at his hands, only to see that indeed, tiny flashes of flame were beginning to gather under his skin. _Er... whoops?_

_This is your only warning. Your powers must be kept completely under control here, or you will not only put yourself and other civilians in danger, but you will jeopardise the security and safety of the entire team. We must all rely on each other completely in this environment, and that means trusting each other with our secret identities. The slightest mis-step here and all we have worked for will crash around our ears. I know that you are in a new place, and that you will want to make sure that you establish a place for yourself within the school, but if you use your powers in any way to do that, I will not only have you expelled, but I will permanently suppress your powers and your memory to keep those that I _can_ trust safe. _

King swallowed. Could Dynamis even do that? He didn't really want to question it.

_Good choice. Now, are you going to eat that apple?_

King looked down at the red apple in his hand that he'd been staring at for the entire conversation. Suddenly, he didn't feel very hungry any more. "Here," he said out loud, and threw the apple at Dynamis.

Only Gingka seemed to notice that something was a little bit wrong, gently nudging King in the ribs with an elbow when Masamune and Madoka were looking the other way.

.

"So how was school, King?"

The group had drifted back to the Headquarters Tower in dribs and drabs throughout the afternoon, as Kenta and Tsubasa had after-school activities on Mondays, and Kyouya had done his usual disappearing act. Most of them had now gathered in the kitchen, watching Ryo cooking dinner under Hikaru's supervision (which was just as well as the so-called Immortal Phoenix was easily distracted and had already burnt himself twice).

"King?"

King thought back through the day. Meeting new people – good. Being the new person – bad. Eating lunch together outside – good. Scary lecture from Dynamis – bad. Most lessons fun so far – good. Homework already – bad. "Okay?" he hazarded.

"It'll get better," Ryo promised, opening one of the cupboards, looking through it and then immediately shutting it again. "The others will look after you until you find your feet. Now, all of you go and get your homework done, then bed."

"_What?_" King spluttered. He'd never heard this rule before! "We have to take naps? Seriously? I'm not five any more!"

"Look," Gingka sighed, and from his expression King quickly realised that perhaps this wasn't an issue to puch any further. "I know it sounds weird, but seriously, it helps. We do our homework, sleep for an hour or two, have dinner, then spend the rest of the night training or out, depending on whether anything bad's happening or not. It's the only way we can actually be awake at school and not fall asleep all the time. You'll see."

.

And of course, Gingka – and by extension Ryo - was right. Even with the added hour of sleep, King was exhausted by the time that midnight rolled around and Ryo gave the command for all of them to stop training and get ready for bed. Thankfully there had been no emergencies that night, but all that meant was that King spent the hours throwing fireballs at Kyouya in an attempt to discover whether his fire could survive a tornado. (In short, it couldn't.)

Gingka fell onto his bed, arms outstretched and red hair flying everywhere. "Uhhhhhh," he groaned. "Ow."

"What's wrong?"

The red-haired boy reached up to rub at one shoulder. "No-one tells you when you get flight powers that it still hurts your muscles. I'm getting used to it, but if I have to pick someone up as well, it just gets worse. Doesn't your fire hurt you?"

For a moment, King saw the first-flame in front of his eyes again. "Yes," he said softly. "Yes, it can still burn me. The first time... the first time my hands weren't immune.

Gingka winced. "Hey," he said suddenly. "What was that at lunch? You went all quiet for ages, I thought something was wrong."

King shrugged awkwardly. "Oh, just Dynamis lecturing me."

"Oh." Gingka's face relaxed. "Don't worry about him. His bark is a lot worse than his bite, and he really does have a massive thing about secrecy and security. He's lectured all of us at one point, though he normally does it out loud. Must have kept quiet because Madoka and the others were there." He stretched, then winced again as his shoulder muscles contracted. "Owww. Ugh, I just want today to be over, because then it's not Monday any more. I don't like Mondays."

"Tuesday tomorrow," King pointed out. "Today, even."

Gingka's only response was to yawn and mutter "Yeah, and new homework tomorrow."

King stared up at the ceiling, smiling to himself. Super powers, new friends, defeating the occasional criminal... this superheroing life really wasn't all that bad, even if he _did_ have homework.

.

In the dull watches of the night, when the many window-eyes of the Headquarters went dark, all slept peacefully, unaware of the shadow slowly gathering around them.


	4. Weatherstorm

_Hey, sorry for lateness (next chapter will DEFINITELY be on time, I promise (exceptions made for extraordinary RL events)), I hadn't realised how long this chapter needed to be, and all of a sudden it was three in the morning and I had work to go to at eight. Also, some nasty RL stuff came up._

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Weatherstorm**

_(In which the air is full of static)_

"_Ohhhh, I've got a way to beat the bad guys,_

_And it is very hot, and very cool!_

_I've got a way to beat the bad guys,_

_A way I'm not allowed to use at schoooooooool..."_

Tsubasa winced as he poked his head into Gingka's room. "Does he have to sing that loudly?" he asked the redhead. Gingka nodded sadly.

"And normally more off-key than this," he said. "So? Are we in or out tonight?"

"Out," Tsubasa confirmed. "There's some rumours of something weird going on in the west of the city, so your dad wants you to take a look. It may have a perfectly normal explanation, but if it doesn't, all of you will be needed."

Gingka caught the strange tone in his voice. "Another superhero?" he asked.

"What's that?" King called from the next-door bathroom – the walls were very thin. "More people?"

"Maybe," Tsubasa answered, raising his voice so that King could hear clearly. "But it could be anything at this stage."

"More people!" King sang, and then suddenly there was a loud _BANG_ from the bathroom. Immediately, a high-pitched siren wailed through the whole floor, and water poured from the overhead sprinklers, soaking everything instantly.

"KING!" came a shriek from down the hall. It sounded a lot like _Kyouya_ of all people. Naturally rather cat-like, he disliked rain at the best of times, and getting doused with the fire-extinguisher was never his favourite activity. Worse still, this was the fourth time in a week that King had accidentally caused a fire by getting over-excited, and even the normally-calm Tsubasa was beginning to get fed up of unexpected showers.

"Sorry!" King shouted back, just as the sprinklers turned themselves off with an audible _snap_.

Gingka, aided by superspeed, had dived under his desk the second that the alarm went off, meaning that at least he was mostly dry. Tsubasa was less lucky; caught between the room-sprinkler and the hall-sprinkler, he was soaked to the bone, his hair dripping down his face.

"This is getting old," he sighed. "He can't keep setting fire to things."

Gingka peered out from under the desk. "The training room isn't really fireproof, though, so he can't practice very well, not like us." He reached into the bottom drawer of the desk and pulled out a towel, throwing it to Tsubasa, who caught it deftly.

"The fact that you've got one of these in your drawer means those sprinklers go off too often," he muttered, voice muffled further by the towel as he started to dry off his long hair. "I don't care if Kyouya hates co-operating with others, he needs to help King train. At least so he doesn't explode so often."

_All of us need more training to work together,_ Dynamis said, appearing over Tsubasa's shoulder, surprisingly dry. _We must work as a team, not a collection of individuals._

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know," Gingka said. "How are you not soaking wet?"

Dynamis raised one eyebrow at him. _I picked up a table,_ he said matter-of-factly. Gingka just shook his head.

"King?" he called, raising his voice somewhat. "How long are you going to be? Dad's going to want us in the debriefing room any second now."

"Just a minute!" King called back. There was a moment of silence, then he added, slightly quieter, "Um, Gingka? You couldn't... pass me a towel?"

"There's towels in there!"

"Er... not any more there aren't..."

"KING!"

.

Thankfully, the group managed to assemble in the debriefing room without any further incidents, though King's hair was heat-dried into enormous spikes. "So what are we doing?" he asked excitedly as Ryo took his place in front of the large map of the city. "Tsubasa said there's another superhero?"

"Maybe," Ryo said. "We have only a little evidence, and there is no suggestion that another Fragment has awoken within the city. But what we do know is that there have been intense, highly localised thunderstorms in this area." He used his finger to draw a circle around most of the western quarter of the city. "Localised to within one street."

Gingka whistled. "That sounds like a superpower," he said. "Kyouya, weather control is your thing, isn't it?"

"I've never even been that way," Kyouya growled.

"That wasn't what I meant..."

"Wait, Kyouya's the one who caused all this?" King asked, looking from person to person in confusion.

"No!" This time it was an outright snarl. "I told you, I've never even been to that side of town."

"But Gingka said-"

_Enough._ Sentry's mental order cut through the room and all of them fell silent. _Kyouya, no-one said that you were the cause. Gingka was asking if you would know anything about how the events could have been caused._

"No idea," Kyouya said, then at Dynamis' fierce glare he added, "It _is_ possible for thunderstorms to be very local like that, but a lot of them at once? Sounds unnatural to me."

Ryo nodded. "Then all of you will go to have a look. If it is another superpower, then you must do your best to bring them back here. Dynamis, I believe you have the plan?"

Dynamis stood up and walked over to the map. _Pegasus, you and Arrow will approach from the south. It is mostly open that way, and you will be able to see a long way. Quicksilver and King will approach from the east. Lion and I will attack from the north. If whatever it is moves, it will have to go west into the open fields._

King sulked. "Hey, why can't I go with Gingka? What's the point of putting your only attacker with your healer? No offence, Yuki."

_You are not our only attack force. And besides, I do not want you causing more damage than we solve. Quicksilver's shields will be able to contain any... accidental fires._

King rolled his eyes. "That was _one time,_ Dynamis."

_It was twice, not counting the times you have set the fire systems off in here. You will stay with Quicksilver._

But Yuki had gone a strange colour. "My grandfather lives out that way," he said quietly. "I hope he's okay."

Tsubasa put a hand on his shoulder. "There wasn't much damage," he said comfortingly. "A couple of shops caught fire and there were some small floods, but as far as we know no-one's died."

"Yet," Kyouya added. "If it's an out-of-control weather-power, who knows what could happen next? Ball lightning? Hailstones?"

"A rain of fish?" Kenta asked before Kyouya could get carried away. "Look, talking about it isn't going to do anything. Come on, Gingka – let's get moving. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can sort this whole thing out." And with that, he led the way out of the room, Gingka and King following behind. A moment later, after a glare from Dynamis, Kyouya also followed them.

Yuki squared his shoulders. "I'll do my best," Tsubasa heard him mutter. "I won't let Grampa get hurt."

"He'll be fine," Tsubasa began, but Yuki had already stepped away from him and was heading for the stairs that led to the outside. Of course, being as young as they were, none of them could drive, and so they were going to have to walk – or fly, technically – to where they were needed. The helicopter attracted too much attention for a group that were trying desperately to stay under the radar, and so it was only used in emergencies. But between Sentry's telekinesis, Lion's wind-control, Pegasus' flight and Quicksilver's slippery, sliding shields, they could get to most places in the city within half an hour.

Tsubasa watched them go, a strange expression on his face that only Hikaru saw.

.

"Are we even in the right area?" Kenta – no, they were in the field now, he was Arrow – asked as he knelt on the edge of the flat roof that he and Pegasus had landed on. "I can't see any thunderstorms."

"This is where Sentry told us to be," Pegasus answered, scanning the area with the high-tech infra-red binoculars he had been entrusted with. "I don't see anything, though."

Arrow sighed. "Hey, can I borrow the binoculars?"

Pegasus handed them over. "Careful," he said automatically. "We've only got three of these."

"I know, I know," Arrow said. "I just thought I saw something move down there... no, it's just a couple of cats."

"Yeah, I saw them too." Pegasus grinned suddenly. "What do you think Dad would say if I brought a kitten back?"

"It could be our team mascot," Arrow laughed. "What would we call it?"

Pegasus took the precious binoculars back and stowed them safely in their case. Exactly how Ryo had managed to get hold of three pairs of military-grade night-vision binoculars was a question none of them were brave enough to ask, along with the eternal mystery of just how the high-tech debriefing room communication systems, the helicopter and the gradual refit of the entire Headquarters were being financed. "Easy," he said. "We'd call her Star. That's why we're here, after all."

There was a sudden noise behind them and both of them spun. Arrow had his bow up and the string pulled back, whilst Pegasus was in the air, one hand within grabbing distance of Arrow's flight harness. It was a standard formation they used instinctively, as Pegasus' limited attacking power made him vulnerable before an enemy assault, and Arrow's inability to escape easily made him vulnerable afterwards. Only by working together could they actually be a significant threat.

But the figure walking across the roof-tops was no threat, at least not to them.

"_Lion?_" Pegasus exclaimed. "I thought you were meant to be working with Sentry!"

Lion shook his head as he prowled towards them, his green hair flying around his face. "I don't work with people," he declared. "Don't think that I'm here to _help_ you. Anyway, I saw something coming this way."

Pegasus groaned. "Lion, we're in transport-attack pairs, you can't just leave Sentry on his own! He's got nowhere near your attack power!"

"He's fine," Lion grumbled. "I don't think someone who can read your mind and then pick up a car to throw at you using only the power of his mind is exactly vulnerable in the battlefield. Now, let me past."

Rolling his eyes, Arrow stepped to the side, but Pegasus remained where he was. "Lion, I know you want to do this alone, but we have to work as a team; we're just not strong enough on our own. _None_ of us can work solo."

Lion's fierce eyes flashed. "I'm strong enough," he snapped. "And I thought we were looking for a weather-controller. As I'm the only one you'll need to take him out, perhaps you should just leave me alone to fix this."

And with that, he hopped over the edge of the roof and disappeared from sight. Arrow winced, but there was no sudden crash of a body landing badly several storeys below; instead a sudden, unnatural wind swirled around the rooftops before vanishing just as quickly.

"Show off," Arrow muttered, and Pegasus couldn't help but agree with him.

.

Meanwhile, to the east, Quicksilver and King had also run up against someone unexpected. Unlike Pegasus and Arrow, though, they could not identify the strange, black-haired young man who stood in front of them.

"Who are you?" King asked, glaring. "What are you doing on our rooftop?"

"Your rooftop?" the young man asked. "You don't live here."

King bristled. "I'm on it. That makes it mine. Why are you up here?"

The young man's smile was deeply, deeply unpleasant. "For the same reason as you, of course," he said. "Aren't you out looking for the one who's been causing all these thunderstorms?"

King and Quicksilver froze. "You mean... _you're_ the weather controller?" King asked, aghast. The young man just laughed.

"No, of course not. I'm here to find him first. A power like that would be of great use to my masters."

"Your _masters_?" Quicksilver gasped, mind grasping with terrifying surety exactly how much trouble thy were in. "What are you talking about?"

The other's eyes flashed. "Never you mind. Now, are you going to remove yourselves from _my_ rooftop?" His grin widened, displaying a fearsome array of unnaturally sharp teeth.

Quicksilver backed off, knowing that in their pair he was the transporter, not the attacker. But King was backing off as well. "What's the plan?" he hissed as they neared the edge of the roof. Quicksilver had to think fast.

"Go and find Sentry or Pegasus," he muttered, praying that the other would not hear. "Tell them what's going on and get them to bring help."

Alas, his wish went unanswered.

"Pegasus?" the young man asked, his eyes suddenly sharp and nasty. "So you _are_ part of his gang of freaks."

That was the last straw for King, who leapt forwards. "We are not freaks!" he shouted, flashes of fire flaring from his fingertips. "Take that back!"

He was inches from the young man when it happened. Something blurred in the air for a second, hiding the other, and when King and Quicksilver blinked and looked again, their opponent was no longer there.

In his place stood an enormous golden-coloured cat with dark brown markings, brilliant eyes and _very sharp teeth._

"King, run!" Quicksilver shrieked, throwing up a shield even as the human-turned-cat pounced. "Get the others, _quick!_"

King wasted no time arguing, and scrambled for the edge of the roof, using a blast of fire to catapult himself to the next one ahead of the huge cat's swinging tail.

"Missssssed," the cat hissed, before turning its attention on Quicksilver. "But you won't get away so easily. The others can take care of the fire-boy."

And with that, it gathered its full weight and flung itself against the shield. Quicksilver felt the whole thing shake, and redoubled his concentration, but the shields had never been meant to hold back half a ton of angry, snarling, spitting cat, let alone a cat which only minutes before had been human. It was all he could do to hold on against the constant assault. Holding the weight off wasn't even half of the battle as six-inch claws scrabbled at the glass-smooth surface, ripping into every imperfection. Flakes of blue light rained down from the damaged areas like crystal chips. Quicksilver was staring into the open jaws of death, and death thought he was a mouse.

"Help," he whispered.

As if by magic, the golden cat hesitated in its attack, attention suddenly dragged away as someone else arrived on the rooftop. This time, though, it was someone recognisable. Quicksilver's heart rose in a faint hope.

"Lion! Please, help me!"

For a moment, Quicksilver was certain that the tall young man was walking towards him. But then Lion carried on, straight past both Quicksilver and the cat.

"This has nothing to do with me," he called over his shoulder. "You've got powers - sort your own battles out."

"Meow?" Even the cat looked confused. "Ah... so you're Lion." It grinned, as much as a cat is capable of. "Sensible choice, not getting involved. I'd just have had to kill you too."

"Whatever," Lion sneered. "You're not my problem." And with that, he stepped off the roof into thin air, only the wind-currents stopping him from plummeting to an unpleasant end.

Quicksilver's heart sank, and he curled up into a ball, trying to summon the strength for a proper hemisphere shield that would hold long enough for King to get back. But he was already so tired from holding the normal shield, and as the cat redoubled its attack he felt the layers of protection slipping away from his control one by one.

Was this where it ended?

"OI! WHISKER-FACE!"

The shout shattered Quicksilver's concentration, and instantly the full weight of the cat was pressing on his back, claws digging through cloth and skin. But a moment later there was a loud yowl and the cat sprang away, leaving only bloody marks where it had landed. Quicksilver dared to look up, only to see the dark red boots of Pegasus go speeding past his nose. There was a loud clanging noise and then the sound of water hitting something solid.

"Mrrow! Kitty no like!"

Quicksilver couldn't quite believe his eyes. Pegasus, appearing from out of nowhere, had apparently thrown an entire bucket of water over the cat, who was now backing off, its tail firmly between its legs but with a fire of absolute hatred in its eyes.

"Pegasus," it hissed. "So you really are all together. How interesting."

The sound of running feet introduced Sentry, Arrow and King all coming to the rescue. Apparently five to one wasn't a set of odds that the cat-man liked, because it backed off right to the edge of the roof.

"We'll meet again, Pegasus," it threatened, before turning its attention on Quicksilver. "And you... I'll make mouse-meat out of you."

Quicksilver shuddered, closing his eyes for a second. When he opened them again, the cat was gone, leaving behind a human figure in white and gold racing away from the superheroes at high speed – not as fast as Pegasus, of course, but fast enough not to bother chasing.

Sentry held out a hand to Quicksilver to help him back to his feet. _Who was that?_ He asked.

"No idea," Quicksilver replied, getting to his feet shakily. "He just came out of nowhere. He was human when he first arrived, I swear."

Sentry nodded grimly. _I had feared as much,_ he said. _It would seem that our days of simply being very young police-force assistants are reaching an end. Others have begun to discover their powers, and not all of them are going to be willing to use their strength for good._

"I thought I saw Lion coming this way," Pegasus said. "What was he doing over here?"

Sentry scowled, and a distinctly displeased tone crept into his mental voice. _He didn't listen to orders. It would seem that he had no intention of following the plan from the beginning, which has almost certainly allowed the weather-maker to escape in the confusion._

"It was a stupid plan anyway," came a voice from the shadows in the street below, and they all looked over the edge of the roof to see Lion standing at the edge of the road, just lit by a street-lamp. He seemed to be holding onto something very tightly, but whatever it was had been hidden by the shadows. "All your plans are far too complicated. Better to just beat all the enemies and have done with it."

"And just where did you go?" Arrow called down angrily. "You know Quicksilver doesn't have any offensive power! You should have helped out!"

"It was nothing to do with me," Lion snapped. "I'm no babysitter. If he's got powers, he should learn how to use them properly."

Arrow, King and Pegasus exchanged glances, and Pegasus shrugged helplessly. "But seriously, Lion, where did you go?"

Lion stepped more fully into the lamplight, and all of them drew in a sudden breath in surprise. "I found the cause of the thunderstorms," he said, and dragged the thing he was holding so tightly into view.

It wasn't what any of them had expected.

It was a boy no older than eight, who stared up at the rooftop group with huge, pale blue, terrified eyes.


	5. Significant

_Slightly shorter chapter, but we can't start the big adventure until everyone's here! So there's a bit more exposition here, but I promise that after next chapter the pace will pick up and we'll start having the proper battles._

* * *

**Chapter 5 - Significant**

_(In which some of the consequences of fame are realised, and there is ice-cream cake for Yuu)_

"And that's when Kyouya grabbed him and dragged him to meet us," Gingka finished. "The rest is pretty obvious."

Ryo sighed and rubbed at his eyes. "I appreciate your enthusiasm, Kyouya," he said, "but perhaps next time you might be a little... _gentler_? Not everyone likes being handled like a sack of meat."

"He's a weather-controller," Kyouya argued. "He's got to be tough if he wants to be able to control lightning and hail and hurricanes. You can't just ask a storm nicely."

The subject of their conversation was huddled on one of the debriefing room chairs, knees pulled up to his chest and face buried in them. Tsubasa sat next to him, never taking his eyes off the boy.

"Do we even know his name?" Ryo asked.

_He is called Tithi, _Dynamis reported. _He is not native to this country, and he wants to go home. He does not seem to have anywhere to live. Without looking much deeper and invading much of his privacy, I cannot say how he got here. _

Ryo frowned. "Then he's better off staying here."

"Don't want to stay here," said a little voice, and Tsubasa jumped. "Don't like the big meanie."

"Big meanie?" Gingka asked. Kyouya's eyes went wide.

"Who do you think you're talking to?" he spluttered, but before he could continue, Tsubasa shook his head.

"Let him speak," he said sternly, glaring at Kyouya.

But it seemed that beyond his ten-word outburst, the newcomer wasn't going to say anything. He remained huddled in his chair, ignoring everyone and everything. Even with coaxing from Ryo, Hikaru and Tsubasa, the pink-haired boy would not speak another word. Eventually, Ryo sighed.

"I think we're going to have to stop for the night," he said. "It's getting late, and you've got school tomorrow. Kenta, Yuki, there's room enough in your bedroom for one more, isn't there?"

Kenta nodded. "Just," he said. "But we'll need more room pretty soon."

"I'll look into getting the funds to open up the next floor and convert the rooms into bedrooms," Ryo promised. "But for now, you're going to have to share."

"Is that alright, Tithi?" Tsubasa asked, but once again got no answer. However, one hand unwrapped itself from around the boy's knees and attached itself to the edge of Tsubasa's tunic. "No, with Kenta and Yuki, not me." The fingers just tightened. "I already share a room with Dynamis and Kyouya."

Instantly the boy dropped his hand and hunched his shoulders. "Don't wanna stay with the meanie," he muttered.

"Then you'll have to stay with Kenta and Yuki, or Gingka and King."

For the first time, the boy raised his head and they got to see once again the astonishing blue eyes that had first stared up at them from the street. Now, though, they were watery with tears. "I'm scared."

_At least you're honest enough to admit it,_ Dynamis said, and the boy jumped.

"You didn't say anything!" he exclaimed.

_I don't have to. I am a telepath. I can talk in people's minds. That is my power, just as yours is creating thunderstorms._

The boy – Tithi, Gingka reminded himself – looked very pale. "I didn't mean to," he whispered. "I was just scared and it happened."

"Control issues," Ryo said. "You're not the only one. Don't worry. You're here now, you can train with everyone until you only create thunderstorms when you want to."

To everyone's surprise, except possibly Dynamis, Tithi suddenly looked pleased. "I can't just make thunderstorms," he said, rather more happily than before. "I can make any sort of weather." He almost smiled. "I can make it rain indoors."

"NO!" The shout came from several directions, but the noisiest was Kyouya. Instantly, Tithi shrank back against Tsubasa, hiding.

"That's quite enough," Ryo said firmly. "Bed. All of you. Kenta, Yuki, you take – Tithi, am I right? - for now. We'll sort out new rooms for everyone later this week."

"What about school?" Gingka asked as King and Kyouya headed for the door. "Is he going to be alright then?"

"I'll think of something," Ryo promised.

Tithi tugged at Tsubasa's sleeve. "What's the big man mean?" he asked very, very quietly.

Tsubasa shrugged. "Sorry," he said. "I've got just as much idea as you right now. Come on, I'll show you to Kenta and Yuki's room..."

.

In fact, it was the next morning that they found out what Ryo had thought of. Simply put, Tithi was going to be coming with them.

"Take him with you," the man sometimes known as Phoenix had suggested as the group hurriedly ate breakfast in the kitchen, rather cramped now that there were ten of them around a single table. "If he stays here, he'll just wrap himself up in his own thoughts and we'll lose him. He likes you, Tsubasa, he'll be okay."

Tsubasa was less convinced than Ryo was, but then again he wasn't the one with powers so he didn't really have a say in it. As it was, Tithi was staying extremely close to him, one hand wrapped around the strap of Tsubasa's bag where it dangled down. As for what to do with him when they got to school, none of them had a clue. He wasn't even technically registered – they'd got him in by claiming he was just a visiting relative.

"TSUBASAAAAAAAA!"

Tsubasa instinctively braced for the attack as Yuu hurtled out of nowhere, only to pull up short at the sight of someone else standing with his friend. "Oh. Who's this?"

"This is a new friend of mine," Tsubasa began, but the moment he got to the word "friend", Yuu interrupted.

"Hi! I'm Tsubasa's friend too, I'm Yuu, what's your name?"

"'mtithi," Tithi murmured shyly, as Yuu grinned at him.

"Hey, Mtithi. Nice to meet you! Tsubasa, is he in my class?"

"I'm _Tithi._"

Tsubasa jumped a little; he hadn't heard the little boy being so forceful before. Had Yuu managed to find the perfect way to pull him a little out of his shell, just by being closer to his own age?

Yuu's grin just became wider. "Hi, Tithi! So, have you met all the other people Tsubasa lives with?"

Tithi nodded shyly. "They're nice. I don't like the big scary one, though."

"Kyouya?" Not for nothing was Yuu known as a genius child; he worked it out in seconds. "Yeah, he's a big meanie. I call him Yo-yo when he's being really annoying."

For a second, Tithi's expression could only be described as incredulous. "Really?"

"Sure I do! Really annoys him too. Hey, do you like ice-cream? One of the older classes was doing a cake sale for charity and they've got the most amazing ice-cream cake if you want to try it."

Tsubasa managed – barely – to restrain himself from rolling his eyes at that. "I'll see you in class, Tithi, Yuu... Yuu?"

For both of them were already gone, disappearing towards the stairs apparently intent on ice-cream. Tsubasa watched the two of them, yellow hair and pink, running off down the corridor together, and knew somehow, deep down, that Tithi was going to be okay now. Yuu was good and kind, and he was closer to Tithi's age... yes, he decided, everything was going to be okay .

Or as okay as it got in a world of superheroes where the villains had yet to make a move.

.

"Get down, King!"

"Aaaahhhggggghhhh!"

"He's hurt! Someone get Quicksilver!"

"I can't drop the shields!"

"Arrow, can you get them from here?"

"They're just too fast, Pegasus! There's too many!"

"Quicksilver, don't lose those shields – we can't risk losing King!"

"I – I can't! He's breaking through!"

"Alright, stop, stop, stop!"

The group relaxed, the blue shields dropping and the ferocious winds fading away. The training room went silent for the first time in almost an hour as the planned scenario quietly fell apart.

"What was that?" Ryo asked. "I thought you were meant to be working as a group. That was a shambles. If you'd been in the streets and did something like that, King might have been killed."

There were a number of slightly sheepish glances exchanged. "Sorry," Kenta said. "I missed Dynamis both times."

"It was my fault," Yuki interrupted. "I just can't heal and hold the shields at the same time."

"It was no-one's _fault_," Ryo said firmly. "Dynamis, you were excellent on the attack. Next time try letting your partner do some of the attacking as well, though – you were trying to do everything and it just wasn't working. Kyouya, follow the plan. I know you don't like doing it, but you have to if we're going to pull through this as a team."

"I don't _do_ teamwork..._"_ came the dark mutter that everyone ignored.

"Arrow, have a bit more confidence in your shots. You would have hit both times if you hadn't done that extra check. I know you wanted to make sure, but you're the best archer in Japan – if you can't do this, no-one can. Yuki – I think with you it's just going to be practice. Same for you, Tithi, though that hailstorm was very impressive earlier. King, you're doing well to keep the level of fire down, I'm really pleased with how well you've done. Keep going, and try to rein it in even more so that you can create single sparks if you have to. If you can all get your individual powers to work together, I'm sure you'll be able to defeat anyone you come across."

_Gingka, you look very pensive,_ Dynamis said suddenly, and everyone looked around to see Gingka perched on the top of the climbing wall, elbow on one knee and fist propping his chin up.

"I've been thinking," he said slowly. "It's about us, and school and stuff. I was thinking about it when I saw Tithi with Yuu at lunch time."

"I like Yuu," Tithi said proudly. "He's my friend. Not like Meanie."

"_My name's Kyouya!_"

Gingka somehow managed to ignore the two weather-controllers. "I realised something. Until now, we've just been battling individuals who were breaking the law. But that guy two nights ago, the cat-guy? He was something else."

_Another with superpowers,_ Dynamis agreed. _We seem to be facing a rather larger threat now. All we can do is be prepared._

Gingka nodded. "That's what I mean. I don't know about you, Dynamis, but _I_ read superhero comics. I know the best way for the bad guys to get them is to attack their friends and family."

Yuki was the first to go white. "My grandfather," he whispered.

Dynamis looked grim. _It's a good point,_ he said. _We've all got friends who are close enough to us that they would be risks – except Kyouya, maybe._

"We can't cut ourselves off from the rest of the world just to keep them safe," Kenta argued. "That's even worse."

"I was wondering when you were going to realise," said Ryo quietly from where he had been packing away the scenario equipment, and they all turned to look at him. "I've been trying to keep track of all the people you keep talking about – Masamune, Yuu, Madoka, Yuki's grandfather and all the others. Your – well, I guess we could call them your significant people, the ones who are more important to you than anything."

"Our significants?" Tsubasa asked, looking puzzled, and Ryo smiled at him.

"That might actually work as a code name," he said. "Significants. Shortened to Sigs. The civilians we have to make sure are protected no matter what." He looked around. "You've all got them."

"Really?" said Kenta. "Even Kyouya?"

Ryo nodded slowly. "Even our resident sour-puss," he said. "If I told you that the bad guys had the person you cared most about in the world held hostage, who is the first person who springs to mind?"

"My grandfather," Yuki said instantly.

King shrugged. "Gingka?" he said. "Or Masamune from school."

"Not your family?" Kenta asked. King looked a bit awkward.

"I don't know where they are or even who they are," he said. "I was brought up by a whole village." It was the first piece of information about his family that the usually very chatty and informative boy had given. Ryo immediately stored it away for future use.

"What about you, Kenta?" he asked.

Kenta hesitated. "I... I don't know," he said. "I think they're all here anyway, except Yuu, maybe?"

"Yuu's mine," Tithi said without being prompted. "And Tsubasa. But mostly Yuu."

"And you, Dynamis?" Ryo asked next, skipping over Tsubasa. The telepath shrugged, but didn't answer, unless it was only to Ryo's mind. "Gingka?"

Gingka was staring at his father, a little red-faced. "Um, Madoka," he said eventually. Kenta and King grinned at each other, and he glared at them. "And Masamune, Yuu and all the others."

"Still," his father said. "You have someone whom you have to protect, someone for whom you would go above and beyond your usual efforts to rescue if they were in danger."

"A Sig," Yuki said. "Yeah, that makes sense. And most of ours overlap – as long as we can keep tabs on who they are, we should be able to keep them all safe." His expression turned serious. "If we're going to have to deal with bad guys with superpowers, we've got to keep them all safe, no matter what."

Dynamis' gaze drifted to fix on the wall, or possibly on something only he could see. "I get the feeling something is coming," he said. "We need to be ready, and we need to protect the whole world from it, not just individuals."

"But we start with our friends," Gingka added. "As long as they're safe, we can do anything."

Ryo looked around at the group of boys who had been drawn together by a cosmic event beyond their control, and sighed silently. When had the boys – _his _boys, _his _son - stopped being children and stepped out into the world as men?


	6. Paint

_First, I'd like to apologise somewhat for last chapter; I was very, very tired when writing it and it is not properly proofed or edited. In fact, I can barely remember what went into it. You may find bits of it changing over time, though if there is a major rewrite (an option, not a certainty) I will say._

_Second, an apology for _this_ chapter. I wanted to make it perfect, so I spent longer writing it, but unfortunately this meant real life had extra chances to get in the way. Hence no update last week._

_As for the chapter itself, we're still in the light, fluffy stuff... sort of._

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Paint**

(_In which we discover how superpowers can be used in the domain of interior design)_

There was a loud crash, a pair of identical yelps and then a clatter. Kenta froze, paintbrush halfway through a stroke, and looked across the room at King.

"I wonder who that was?" he mused.

"Sounded like Gingka and Yuki," King answered. "Guess I'll go find out."

He put down the softly-glowing shield that he was using as a mortarboard for the plaster, hopped off of the stepladder and disappeared out of the door. Kenta quietly put his own paintbrush down and moved the shield – one of Quicksilver's – away from the path King would take when he came back. Of course, knowing King, he'd put his foot in it anyway, but that was another problem. He was just placing it on the covered table when King reappeared, giggling.

"It was Gingka," he confirmed. "But not Yuki – Hikaru!"

The Headquarters for the group (everyone was getting increasingly annoyed with that title and both King and Kenta were angling for the new title of "The Legends" as their proper name) was in a complete mess. Dust-sheets, stepladders, paint pots, plaster mixers, extra shields for use as mortarboards or just as places to keep the various piles of nails, screws, bolts, hammers, screwdrivers, spanners, paintbrushes, mixers and just about anything else that might be useful covered most of the third floor, and parts of the second as well. Ryo had told them only a couple of days before that they had managed to get the money for a complete refit of the third floor to create bedrooms for all of them, so that they weren't sharing three-to-a-room any more. He had been very, very shady on exactly where this money had come from, though, and Gingka was getting suspicious. After all, it was a mammoth operation, only really possible because the group had certain... advantages.

"Dynamis?" came Yuki's voice from the end of the hall. "I'm out of plaster!"

_Coming._

There was a faint _whoosh_ and King jumped back from the doorway just in time to let Kenta see a wheelbarrow full of plaster dust skidding along the corridor, unmanned.

"Thanks Dynamis! You're awesome!"

"Tithi? Is the weather still holding?" Ryo called. "You can let it rain tonight if the pressure's too high."

"It's fine!" Tithi chirruped from the room closest to the stairs. "It was going to be mostly sunny anyway, I just made it a bit hotter. This is so much fun!"

"I'm going to need some more shields in a minute, Yuki." That was Tsubasa, who was in the largest room, helping Ryo to repair the ceiling of what would eventually become Kyouya's bedroom. "The glue isn't holding the ceiling tiles in place long enough to get them cemented – can I borrow you to hold them up flat?"

"Dad?" Gingka shouted from the room two down from Kenta, "I'm out of nails! Anyone got some?"

A chorus of "No!" floated back, and Dynamis added _Unfortunately you had our last packet._

"Go down to the shops," Ryo suggested. "Get some ice-cream whilst you're at it? It's almost lunch time and you boys deserve a treat for working so hard in this heat." There was a second of muffled shouting and then Ryo added "And girls! Sorry, Hikaru! Gingka, we'll see you in..."

"Got them!"

"... in about three seconds."

All in all, it was a busy, happy scene. Everyone had a job, and things were actually progressing for once. Even Kyouya, in charge of keeping a steady breeze blowing through the whole building to dry the paint and to carry away any fumes, seemed happy as he cleaned the old plaster off of the brickwork in his new room. He had decided to go for a bare-wall look, which was probably good as bricks wouldn't get as damaged by things being hurled around by the wind as plaster would have.

"_OW!"_

Heads popped out of the various rooms along the corridor as the yell reverberated in both the air and in the mind. "Dynamis?" Yuki called. "Are you okay?"

_I hit my thumb with the hammer. Ow._

Kyouya, King and Gingka all laughed, and even Kenta grinned. It was rather incongruous to think of the graceful, elegant Dynamis hitting his thumb with a hammer. Yuki, however, immediately put down his mortarboard-shield and trotted down the hall to the room Dynamis was working on.

"Here," he ordered, holding out a blue-glowing hand. "Give me your hand – I'll heal it."

_Don't worry about me, Yuki. I appreciate that you are trying to help, but I think I should keep this pain to remind me not to hit myself with a hammer in future._

"Don't be silly, Dynamis, you're going to have an awful bruise there if you don't let me look at – oh _no!"_

For just as Yuki spoke, the shield holding all of Dynamis' neatly organised piles of nails had wavered and vanished. Cries of shock and alarm echoed around the floor as all of Yuki's other shields simultaneously vanished as well, leaving several people with handfuls of wet plaster, and almost dropping a ceiling on Tsubasa and Ryo.

"Sorry! I'm so sorry!" Yuki gabbled, desperately trying to reform the shields. "I thought I could do it because it was only a little healing and I wasn't holding a lot of weight on the shields but I'm really sorry and I won't do it again and I swear I'll train harder so that this doesn't happen and -"  
_Yuki! Calm down._ As usual, Dynamis was the first to take control of the situation. _Trying to heal and shield at the same time will take enormous effort – you can't expect to be able to do it after only a couple of weeks._

"But I _should_ be able to! Gingka can fly whilst at superspeed, you can talk to us and lift things at the same time, Kyouya can hold multiple tornadoes... I should be able to heal and shield together."

"Okay, okay, that's enough," Ryo ordered, walking in. "Let's stop for lunch before this gets out of hand."

"But," Yuki began, then stopped at the expression on Ryo's face.

"We'll clear up after lunch, when everyone's calmed down," Ryo said firmly. "The dust won't hurt anything by being there a little longer."

"Oh. Okay." But Yuki didn't look especially happy as the troupe made their way down two flights of dusty, paint-splattered stairs to the sunlit kitchen. Kenta glanced sideways at him as he trotted down the second flight next to the brown-haired boy, and spotted a tiny dodecahedron made of glowing blue shields forming and reforming itself on Yuki's palm.

"That's pretty," he said, and Yuki jumped, closing his fist and destroying the little shape.

"It's nothing," he muttered. "It's just practice."

"It's awesome, though. Wish I could do it."

Yuki looked sad. "I wish I could do what you do. I'm always having to be protected in a fight because I just can't do anything."

Kenta stared at him. "You're _our_ protection, Yuki. We couldn't do what we do without you there, you know that."

"Yeah, I guess..."

Kenta got the distinct feeling that Yuki wasn't listening, and frowned. But he didn't have a chance to say anything else as a gust of wind roared past him and a clatter from a floor below told him that Gingka – or rather, Pegasus – had decided to get a move on with making the sandwiches.

.

It was actually Sunday morning before they managed to get all the mess caused by Yuki's slip-up cleared, and so it was must after breakfast that Hikaru ceremoniously placed a tray of paints, stencils, brushes and rollers down in the middle of the table and stepped back, looking rather proud of herself.

"You're allowed to decorate your own rooms," she said. "Don't go too crazy, but you can do whatever you want."

"Bagsy the red!" King shouted, suddenly jumping up and grabbing a handful of coloured tubes of paint. "And the orange! I wanna decorate first!"  
"I want the green!" Kenta called after him. "And the orange when you're done with it!"

"How about you, Tithi?" Gingka asked kindly as the rest of the group eagerly gathered around to pick their colours – Gingka himself grabbing the blue paint. "Have you decided what your room is going to look like yet?"

To his surprise, Tithi's eyes lit up. "Yep! I need red and green and blue and yellow and purple and brown and..."

"That's a lot of paint!" Gingka laughed. "What are you painting?"

"I'll show you!" Tithi darted out of the room and up the stairs, apparently heading towards the debriefing room, where all of the stuff from the various rooms had been shoved so that nothing got inadvertently covered in paint, plaster dust or anything else. Gingka and the others followed him to the staircase, intrigued. This was the most animated Tithi had been since he arrived – well, with the exception of any time he had been around Yuu. In fact, Yuu had asked Tithi if he wanted to stay overnight at Yuu's house that weekend, but Ryo had said no. After all, Yuu was Tithi's closest friend, his Sig, and knew a lot about the purple-haired boy. They couldn't risk any information leaking out.

"I'm going to paint all the designs from this onto my walls," Tithi called, the faint clattering sounds telling the rest that he was rummaging through the tall piles of odds an ends. "It'll be amazing!"

And he stepped back into the corridor.

Or, rather, _something_ stepped back into the corridor. Kenta gave a sharp yelp and jumped backwards, away from the huge, eerie face that emerged from the debriefing room.

"It's okay," Tsubasa said quickly. "It's a mask, don't worry."

And what a mask it was. It was brightly coloured and wonderfully carved – but it was also massive, coming down almost to Tithi's knees when he put it on.

"That's a Mesoamerican mask, isn't it?" Yuki asked, stepping forwards. "It's beautiful! Are you from that area, Tithi?"

The little boy looked shy. "Sort of. I think. I don't really remember much, but I've always had this."

Kyouya leaned over and grabbed the mask, looking at it critically. "You weren't wearing that when we found you," he said darkly. Tithi shrank back.

"I... I went back and got it afterwards," he whispered. "With Mr Ryo. He said I could have it."

"It looks ridiculous." Kyouya dropped it back into Tithi's hands. "Completely impractical."

_Be nice,_ Dynamis snapped. _You're team-mates now, you should behave like it._

"Yeah? Well, I never wanted a team in the first place!"

Gingka and Tsubasa moved in perfect sync to stand between the two young men. "Whoa, whoa, calm down," Gingka said, holding up his hands.

"Don't fight," Tsubasa added. "Let's just get back to decorating."

Dynamis lowered his head, but Kyouya harrumphed and turned away, heading up the stairs to his third-floor room.

"Hey," Kenta said, turning to Tithi. "I've just thought of something. That's an Aztec mask, right? It could be your name whilst you're out with us – I mean, Ginga's Pegasus, I'm Arrow... you can be Aztec!"

"Don't be ridiculous," King shouted from the top of the stairs; he was leaning over the bannisters. "What kind of silly name is that?"

"I like it!" Tithi grinned. "I'm gonna be Aztec! That's a really fun name!"

"The Mesoamericans weren't just Aztecs," Yuki began, but Dynamis subtly shook his head and he dropped the subject.

"I'm going to paint the sky on my ceiling," Gingka announced. "Then I'm going to paint the stars onto it so it looks like I'm sleeping outside."

"Sounds good," Tsubasa said. "I thought I'd make a mural or something to look like a forest all around my walls."

"That sounds like a really good idea, Gingka," Kenta interrupted. "Can I do it too?"  
"Sure!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

The scream came from the debriefing room. Gingka was there in less than a second, and the others were only just behind him. "Tithi, what's wrong?" Gingka shouted. "Are you – what the..."

For the massive screen that was usually used to map out areas of the city where they would be patrolling had lit up on its own and was crackling loudly with static. "Dad! DAD! There's something wrong with the screen!"

That screen never lit up, not unless there was an incoming call from someone. But they were all there in the room, even King and Kyouya, who had bolted down the stairs the second that Tithi screamed. There was no-one who should have been calling.

"Dad!"

"Coming, Gingka!" Ryo appeared, Hikaru on his heels, both of them looking worried. "What is it?"  
"The screen! It's just turned itself on for no reason."

"Ah," Ryo said, relaxing. "It's just someone trying to get in contact. Don't worry."

_But who? We are all here._

"What if it's a hacker or someone?" Gingka whispered.

"It isn't," Ryo reassured him. "I promise."

"Then who is it?" Kyouya asked, eyes fierce. "I don't like that you're not telling us."

The speaker crackled suddenly. _"You may tell them,_" said a deep and horrifically distorted voice. "_After all, they are the ones who are directly affected._"

Tithi shrieked and dived behind Tsubasa. The sun vanished outside the window, and the temperature dropped as clouds roared in. Kenta automatically went for his arrows, only to remember that his quiver was in his room. A fire sprang to life on King's hand, twisting as an unnatural breeze swirled through Kyouya's hair.

"Calm down," Ryo said quietly. "Boys – I'd like you to meet our sponsor, the man who has been paying for all of your equipment, the refits and most of our food as well."

Tithi peeped out from behind Tsubasa's back. "What's his name?"

"_You don't need to know that,_" said the distorted voice, and Tithi hid again. _"I am just interested in your progress as a group. You should know that the rest of the world is slowly waking up to the knowledge that there is a large group of superheroes in Japan."_

"How?" Kyouya asked. "We're not exactly a big city here."

"_There are always mobile phones and cameras. There aren't any good pictures so far, but there are enough to identify how many individuals you have in the group – and the differences between you. It will not be long before you are the subject, and then the target, of the world's media. Be careful what you do. Already social media is beginning to give you all a name; the Legends."_

"YES!" King exclaimed, only to get glared at by Kyouya.

"That's what I was going to talk to you about," Ryo said. "We need to work out what we're going to be to the media and to the police. Either way, it'll cost us."

"_I will do what I can to keep the news stories quiet,"_ the speaker declared. "_But I cannot stop all the online sources. They may be the weak chink in your armour."_

Ryo nodded. "I understand. We'll be careful."

"_I would suggest investing in masks," _the other person said. _"Maybe a uniform too. One of the photos I found today was rather too close for comfort."_

"We understand," Ryo said again. "Thank you for the warning."

"_You are welcome. I must go; I have other business to attend to. You know how to contact me if you need more information."_

"So that's the guy who pays for everything?" Gingka mused as the connection cut out. "He seems nice... but why couldn't we see him, or hear him properly?"

Ryo shrugged. "I guess he doesn't want people knowing his face. If he's rich enough to support us all, he'll probably be well-known. I suspect he doesn't want anyone tying him to us as we're still technically a vigilante group."

"Or her," Hikaru added. "The voice is so distorted it could be a girl."

"True."

"But it could be anyone," Kyouya said grimly. "How do you know he's trustworthy?"

Ryo gave him a long, steady look. "He has not proved false yet. I'd like to be able to trust him."

_The Phoenix may trust,_ Dynamis whispered for Gingka's ears only, _but I at least do not. Whoever this sponsor is, they must prove themselves properly – prove that they are worthy of us, of the Legends._

.

_Many miles away._

"Any success?"

"No, Master." The thin, grey-haired but young man huddled over the computer looked up at the taller, older man who stood behind him. "I am too far away to use my powers, and from outside their system is very secure. But I think I have found a loophole."

"Good work, Mercy," said the man called Master. "Our attack must be soon, or they will interrupt our plans again. We cannot let them reach the ghost."

"They must have outside help from somewhere," Mercy muttered, turning back to his computer. "If I could just work out where from, maybe I could get in there instead. There's no way a former shop-owner and traveller has enough money to buy a place big enough for so many."

Master frowned. "Hmm. Well, maybe you should concentrate on finding where they actually live first. Until then, we need distractions – as many as we can."

The grey-haired man laughed. "That's _easy,_" he said. "Name a current social media platform and you'll hear at least one group trying to triangulate their position."

In the shadows at the back of the room, a tall shape moved a little, and the floorboards creaked. "Then I guess you are going to need me," it said, voice low and rumbling.

Master smiled thinly. "Indeed. It's about time you started earning your pay. Felix will accompany you. Your job is simple. Go into the city, find this group, these _Legends,_ as people call them – and destroy them."

* * *

_IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE_

_Hi, guys! So... it would seem that my plan of uploading once a week has failed dramatically. This is actually for several reasons that I'd rather not go into, but mostly from exhaustion. SO._

_This story is going on a small hiatus, only until the end of October. For one thing, I'm away a couple of the weekends in October (MCM ComicCon London!), so I won't be able to keep to the schedule anyway. I plan to write a couple of chapters in the time, and then take on the monumental challenge that is NaNoWriMo. Basically, that means that at least 25,000 words will be written on this story next month (I have another story in desperate need of attention which will get the other 25,000) and that will allow me some time to write the next chapters._

_I'm so sorry to have to do this to you only 6 chapter in, but I want to make this as good as I can, rather than struggling all the time to hit deadlines. Please be assured that this WILL return (you're not the only person waiting for Ryuga, Chris and Aguma!) as soon as I've built up some properly finished 'buffer' chapters._


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